IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v7y2017i3p2158244017720483.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Blackness as Burden? The Lived Experience of Black Africans in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Virginia Mapedzahama
  • Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo

Abstract

Skin color is broadly accepted as a conspicuous marker of difference and racial belonging. Yet while the body is understood as a given, it is also socially inscribed: heavily sexualized, gendered, and even “colored.†This article is about African bodies that are colored Black. It critically discusses the experiences of black embodiment for African diaspora bodies that are coded “black†and inscribed with blackness in Australia. The article is written from a black African experience perspective to call into question current distorted and problem-centered narratives of African Blackness in Australia. Adopting standpoint theory and critical race theory’s unique voice of color thesis as conceptual framework for making sense of focus group data with black African migrants living in New South Wales and Victoria, the article’s main contention is that black African embodiment is experienced as a (symbolic and material) burden; what we call the “the burden of Blackness.†We discuss four dimensions of this burden: problematic stereotypes and social constructions, the paradox of in/visibility, burden of racial “two-ness,†and burden of minimization.

Suggested Citation

  • Virginia Mapedzahama & Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo, 2017. "Blackness as Burden? The Lived Experience of Black Africans in Australia," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(3), pages 21582440177, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:7:y:2017:i:3:p:2158244017720483
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244017720483
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244017720483
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244017720483?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo & Virginia Mapedzahama, 2015. "Media Event, Racial Ramblings, or Both? An Analysis of Media Coverage of the Tamworth Council Sudanese Refugees Resettlement Case (2006)," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(4), pages 21582440156, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vassilissa Carangio, 2023. "White Anglo patriarchal possession in organizations: Unequal vertical career progressions among Anglo White & non‐Anglo White highly skilled immigrant women," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1199-1217, July.
    2. Hyacinth Udah, 2019. "Searching for a Place to Belong in a Time of Othering," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-16, October.
    3. Kathomi Gatwiri & Leticia Anderson, 2020. "Boundaries of Belonging: Theorizing Black African Migrant Experiences in Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-13, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:7:y:2017:i:3:p:2158244017720483. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.